This particular book Free is Beautiful: Why Catholics Should be
Libertarian by Randy England, caught my eye because it was refreshing
to see that not all Catholics share the Marxist beliefs of their
current pope. It is also interesting to see libertarian arguments
being made from a Catholic standpoint. England starts off by using an
Old Testament story about the period after Moses, where the Israelites
were ruled by judges, who mostly settled disputes and provided
leadership during a time of war. The people who were unsatisfied with
the way the judges ruled went to the prophet Samuel to demand that a
king be anointed. Samuel, who is not really onboard with this, prays
to God for assistance. Basically God tells Samuel to let his followers
have a king, but to make sure that they understand the consequences of
what will happen, once a king is anointed.

Samuel tells the people that when a king is selected, he will take
their property and their labor to use it for his own benefit. Samuel
also told them that any prayer made for the relief of the tyranny of
the king they choose, will fall on deaf ears. Sadly, the people didn't
heed his warning, so once a king was anointed everything Samuel
predicted came true.

England also provides quotations from St. Pius X who called private
property an incontrovertible natural right. The most interesting quote
regarding private property, is by St. Thomas, when he said something
along the lines of an individual being more inclined to take care of
property that is his as opposed to property that belongs to an entire
community. England again provides us with an interesting quote, this
time from John Paul II, where he says that welfare is ineffective,
inefficient and lacks the humanity of voluntary charity.

What surprised me the most about Randy England is that his
libertarianism seems to lean more towards the realm of Anarcho-capitalism.
For some reason I had this man pegged as a miniarchist,
but sure enough England proposed having the police replaced by private
security. He also reminds us that a society without government, isn't
necessarily a society without rules. He talked about how property
owners can create their own communities and implement their own rules.

The one major disagreement that I had with England was over the issue
of abortion. Not that it was that much of a surprise, since abortion
is a major no-no to the Catholic Church. He dedicated an entire
chapter where he comes up with a way to slowly phase it out by having
a series of local bans and by slowly convincing everybody that
abortion is evil. While I do respect the pro-life side of the
argument, since I do have some of my own qualms about certain aspects
of abortion, I still haven't been sold on the notion that aborting an
underdeveloped fetus is the same as killing a fully developed person.

Now the one big elephant in the room, is how England feels about the
Marxist leanings of his current pope. I would think that this would be
a hard thing to ask a Catholic, since the pope's word is supposed to
be infallible. Though I have heard that Judge Andrew Napolitano who is
not only Catholic, but comes from the old school variety that attends
masses given in Latin that the pope has dominion over moral issues,
but doesn't have any over those that are political in nature. It's
possible that maybe England has the same views. Though I do wonder
what this current pope would think of a member of his flock advocating
Anarcho-capitalism.

Despite the one minor disagreement that I had with England, I thought
his book was a pleasant surprise and even for a non-Catholic like
myself, it was pretty thought provoking. I recommend this book to both
Catholics and non-Catholics alike. I especially recommend this for
anybody that has Catholic friends who are interested in
libertarianism, but are not sure if it is compatible with their
beliefs.

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